Review: Komodo IDE 4.0
Editor: Komodo IDE 4.0
Version: 4.0.1
Developer: ActiveState
Platform/OS: Windows | Mac | Linux
WYSIWYG: No
Price: $295 USD ($245 until 02/28/07)
(Please note: this review is based on the Windows version of Komodo IDE 4.0.)
Ok, before I say anything else, I’ll say this: Go get Komodo IDE 4.0 and test it out. This is a great editor, packed with excellent features. If you code for the web, it’s got most if not all of the tools you need to not only build your sites and applications, but test and debug them as well.
What I Like
There’s a lot. In no particular order:
- Komodo IDE has all the basics I require in an editor, including:
- Multiple-document interface with draggable tabs.
- Syntax highlighting for several client- and server-side languages.
- Code completion and code hinting.
- Code snippets.
- Not only does Komodo IDE feature syntax colouring for a multitude of languages, it also highlights web template languages such as RHTML, Template-Toolkit, Smarty, and Django.
- The syntax checker points out errors on the fly for recognized languages, helping you spot problems with your code.
- Bracket highlighting (especially useful for PHP).
- Column/block selection.
- Customizable syntax highlighting, including the ability to create themes (by default, Komodo comes with four pre-made themes).
- Advanced code snippets with replacement tokens. There is also the ability to create macros.
- Code collapse.
- Project management.
- DOM viewer, which lets you see an outlined structure of your web page.
- Source code control with Diff or CVS, Perforce, SVN integration.
- Regular Expression (Rx) Toolkit, which helps you create regular expressions.
- You can customize Komodo with XPI plug-ins, the same type used for Firefox.
- Komodo has its own project template system.
- Komodo is cross-platform and supports multi-users for collaboration.
Gripes
To be honest, I haven’t run across too much to gripe about. This editor seems solid, leaving me to be nit-picky:
- Komodo is a bit slow to start on my machine, though it’s certainly faster than Dreamweaver, for example.
- I prefer the way TopStyle and WeBuilder handle auto-completion of CSS, adding semi-colons and curly brackets automatically.
- The PHP code hinting could be better, though perhaps I missed a setting somewhere. For example, if I type “i” the editor will suggest “if”; but if I type “fo” neither “for” nor “foreach” are suggested.
- There’s no bracket or quotation auto-completion.
- $295 is a pretty hefty price tag, relatively speaking. Mind you, when you spend 16 hours a day editing code, you can make your money back pretty quickly.
Wishlist
- Better PHP code hinting.
- Bracket/quote auto-completion.
- Column editing ala TextMate.
- Multi-line search and replace.
Overall
If hadn’t been for odd_sock’s suggestion in the forums, I would have overlooked Komodo completely. I’m glad I didn’t; this is a top-notch editor. Moreover, if the debugger, interactive shells, source code control integration, HTTP inspector, DOM viewer, Rx Toolkit, and code browser aren’t important to you, you can download Komodo Edit 4.0 (Komodo IDE’s little brother) for free, even for commercial use. So, like I said at the start of the review: Go get a copy of Komodo and give it a spin. Then let me know what you think.
10 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Glad you liked it. It’s quickly becoming my editor of choice. It has all the features I need, which are pretty much the same as yours. Find in files, especially a fast find in files is also crucial to me. I’m using the beta of the free version and it is basically the same beast lacking a few things that I usually use Firefox for anyway, it’s stable too and hasn’t crashed on me once when I overload it.
The final of Edit (free) should be out soon.
Comment by odd_sock — February 14, 2007 @ 1:22 am
i tried and liked it, but it misses the same feature as most editors (if not all, AFAIK): proper code formatting for javascript!!!
but i agree, the free version is excellent.
Comment by Alexandre Plennevaux — February 14, 2007 @ 6:27 am
Thanks for taking the time to check out Komodo and write the review. I’m pleased that it’s working well for you.
In order to make the editor even better, please do take the time to log enhancement requests in the Komodo bug tracking database, so we (the Komodo Team) can improve on those “small gripes”.
Just a note on column editing, Komodo does have some support this, just try holding ALT-SHIFT and moving the mouse cursors.
Also, to Alexandre, I’m not sure what you mean by proper formatting for JavaScript, could you please provide an example or log a bug with activestate.
Thanks, Todd – Komodo Developer
Comment by Todd Whiteman — February 14, 2007 @ 11:01 am
Hi Todd,
well i use PHPEdit 2.8, which has an awesome function for php, called “code beautifier”. With one click, it recreates proper indenting to reflect code structure. But that feature is only available to php. Topstyle has it also for CSS.
but none have that for javascript, where code often looks like a mess.
there is an online facility for that(http://www.prettyprinter.de/) but something available inside the IDE via a keyboard shortcuts is much more effective.
If komodo had this “code beautifier” functionality, it would be the first…AFAIK, and i would love it, so i would buy it.
hope this helps,
Alex
Comment by Alexandre Plennevaux — February 15, 2007 @ 1:23 am
Another couple of handy little features that sold me and I forgot to mention are the split view and the choice of 2 find results tabs. Very nice.
I’m now using the final of the free EDIT version and it also seems quite a bit snappier than the beta.
Comment by odd_sock — February 16, 2007 @ 4:53 am
i installed version 4 of komodo edit and i really like it! it’s in some ways much better than phpEdit in terms of stability and general responsiveness, the “feel” of the software is very strong.
i do really miss the code beautifier functionalities, though.
Comment by Alexandre Plennevaux — February 17, 2007 @ 5:35 am
I use Komodo Edit (the free version) and I know they added the curly brace auto completion with CSS, so you might want to take another look and see if the other features on your wishlist are there as well.
Comment by Chad M. — December 20, 2007 @ 5:13 pm
Oh… this is with their recent update to version 4.2, which I forgot to mention. blush
Comment by Chad M. — December 20, 2007 @ 5:14 pm
I’ve been struggling with Eclipse for too long. Hopefully Komodo will get me up and running fast. Thanks for the review.
Comment by Rimian — October 20, 2008 @ 5:17 pm
I got an email today saying that Komodo 5 is just around the corner.
Comment by Eric — October 20, 2008 @ 7:11 pm